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August 30, 2003Clous aims to construct 93 homes in MayfieldNo environmental issues stand in the way; 40 acres of the parcel are now cornByRecord-Eagle staff writer TRAVERSE CITY - Approval is expected soon for a 93-lot subdivision in Mayfield Township that developer Bill Clous plans to build on a corn field. Clous applied for permits for the development earlier this month, just as a dispute heated up with state and county officials over property in East Bay Township that Clous said he has cleared and partially filled in order to create farmland. Clous maintains he is exempt from certain soil erosion and wetland controls because he is a farmer; some officials say Clous instead exploited the farming exemption to get around restrictive soil erosion and wetland control laws. Clous' Mayfield Township plans include 93 home sites on 80 to 90 acres at the southwest corner of Center and Schichtel roads - including around 40 acres of farmland - that would be built over the next five years, said Pete Bruski, deputy drain commissioner. Bruski questioned Clous' plan to convert prime farmland into a subdivision while maintaining that he only plans to farm the property in East Bay Township at Hammond and Three Mile roads, an area of increased development in recent years. "I find it hard to believe he's going to plow over his 40 acres of corn land and start growing houses," he said. "It just kind of goes against the grain of what he's trying to push himself off as." Bruski added that Clous has said that he plans to develop the portion of the land that isn't agricultural before he develops the corn field. Clous referred questions to a publicist, Luke Haase. "He's never said he's merely a farmer. What he's said was, he's farming on that property and wants to continue to farm," Haase said, referring to the East Bay Township property. Clous and his wife purchased the Mayfield Township property to develop it, Haase said. State Sen. Michelle McManus, R-Lake Leelanau, who defended Clous and his right to farm, and referenced shrinking state farmland while intervening in his troubles with the county and the Department of Environmental Quality over his East Bay Township property, had no comment on the Mayfield Township development. "Senator McManus has no knowledge of the development that you're calling in question about, therefore she would not have any comment regarding that situation," said her spokesperson, Emily Carney. A county permit for the Mayfield Township development will most likely be approved sometime next week, Bruski said. There are no environmental issues standing in the way of the development, he said. There is a wetland on the property, he said, but it is an unregulated wetland because it does not sit within 500 feet of a body of water larger than one acre or a stream. Because it's an unregulated wetland, Clous could fill it without penalty. However, according to development plans, the wetland has been set aside and will remain untouched. Under a planning agreement with the township, about half the property will be set aside as an open space, Bruski said. Leah Mitchell has lived across the street from the Mayfield Township property for 35 years and she's not thrilled about the subdivision and what it will do to deer habitat. But she said she also believes in a developer's right to build. "I think people are getting carried away with environmental stuff on what we do with our property," Mitchell said.
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